MOO 5: Picture Perfect
by Amanita Jackson
Summary: Month O' Oneshots 5! Theodore watches the sunrise every morning, without fail. When pneumonia and a meddling mediwitch interfere, what's Theodore to do? BlaiseTheodore.


A/N: Had Theodore on the brain today. That and quite the catchy song. I am in a very good mood so I gave this a happy little ending. Don't really have much for this A/N this evening...

MOO: #5

Pairing: hints of Blaise/Theodore

Dedication: For Anza, for no reason.

Disclaimer: Meus neque Theodorem neque Blaisem neque reliquos sunt.

Warning: NONE! Ha. I win. Nothing bad at all in this one. The more dedicated of you may be able to find some innuendo; let me know if you do. (Yes, I beg shamelessly for reviews. Take pity, good sirs and madams.)

* * *

He used to go up on the roof. Well technically it was a balcony, but it was right above one of the slope-y bits on the roof of the castle, so he _pretended_ it was the roof. It was stone, with a wrought iron railing.

He never, ever leaned on the railing.

It was a strong enough railing. Quite new, really. Tested by Filch at the start of every school year. Despite his contempt for moody, brooding teenage brats Filch was far too proud of 'his' castle to let said teenagers fall to their deaths because of a faulty railing. Filch trusted the castle to do in the most annoying students on its own.

He didn't lean on the railing because he was afraid that if he didn't believe enough that the railing was there…there would be nothing to believe.

So he sat near the edge, on the stone. He trusted stone. Every morning he sat there and watched the sun rise. At times he felt rather melodramatic. But as the sun's fiery bulk lifted itself daily above the distant horizon, he figured it didn't really matter because no one knew about his trips except him, and he was perfectly happy with it so it was probably all right.

He watched every sunrise from his perch, ever since he came to Hogwarts. Even if he had to stay up all night doing an essay, he would stop and go watch the sunrise, then go back to writing. He got no few detentions because of this habit, but he didn't mind.

Watching the sunrise was the only thing he absolutely _had_ to do. Every morning, the whole sunrise. He'd been doing it so long, further back than he could remember, that his body was tuned to the sun's orbit.

He didn't exactly have a lot of friends, which he didn't mind. He learned more watching, anyway. Theodore's favourite thing in the world to do was to watch.

Sometimes he wished someone would respond to him when he talked to them, or wave back at him if he waved, or acknowledge his presence like he worshiped theirs. No one ever did, which made him sad sometimes, but generally he was okay with just watching.

Theodore's favourite thing in the world to watch was the sun. He can pretend the sun watches back.

But he had caught pneumonia yesterday and climbing up onto his roof early in the freezing January morning today had definitely not helped. So he was now in the Hospital Wing.

It was imperative that he watch the sunrise tomorrow. Well, the Hospital Wing had windows, yes? Windows big enough for him to climb out of, certainly. Theodore was tall, but very slim.

He climbed out of his hospital bed, shaking, and walked as carefully as he could to the nearest window. Theodore opened it and stuck his head and shoulders out. He twisted around but could only see the wide, gentle slope of the roof two feet below the window.

Hopefully there would be some way to get to the upper levels of the roof from there. If not, he would at least be outside and could probably navigate the surrounding area well enough to see the sunrise.

If he was going to be able to drag himself out of bed the next morning, Blaise thought, he had better get some rest now. He walked carefully back to his bed and sat down slowly. He really did feel awful.

Some hours later, he felt himself being shaken awake. He was handed something by Madam Pomfrey asked what it was. She told him rather grumpily to just drink it. He was informed that it was a sleeping potion and as he snuggled back under the blankets Theodore mumbled to himself about medi-witches and their perverse need to wake people up to make them go to sleep.

"Control freaks, all of them" was his last conscious thought.

The next day, he woke with a start. The sun shone reproachfully through the windows. Theodore shot out of bed and practically ripped the clock off the wall.

10:00. He'd missed it.

Theodore couldn't believe it. He had missed the sunrise. He was dimly aware of Madam Pomfrey lecturing him on the dangers of the cold weather and how much blue syrup constituted a dose and things of that ilk. He kept nodding until she shooed him out the door.

_I missed it._

He walked down to get some toast and strawberry jam for breakfast, if there was any left.

_I can't believe I missed it._

The Hall was deserted, except for the crumbs on the various platters. Wandering among the tables, Theodore managed to scrounge half a piece of toast and enough jam to scrape over it.

_What am I going to do?_

The rest of the day went by in a dull haze. Theodore made himself stay up all night. Partly as punishment, partly to be _sure_ he wouldn't miss the next sunrise.

He stayed out on his nook in the roof the whole night and until breakfast time the next day.

_I will never be able to see that sunrise, no matter how long I stay up._

_I don't know what I can do._

He slept through all of his morning classes and ambled aimlessly to lunch. This was one of the times Theodore was glad no one paid attention to him. The more sad or angry or hopeless Theodore feels, the more he wants to be alone.

_I wish the whole school, even the castle and the forest and everything, would just disappear._

_Except the roof. The roof can stay._

_I wish there was nothing in the world except me and the roof and the sunrise._

A disjointed, busy, _pointless_ week later, Theodore felt someone tap on his shoulder at the end of dinner. He continued eating, knowing it was probably just someone bumping into him, because no one ever sought out Theodore.

Someone tapped him again. He turned, wiping his mouth on his arm. A folded note was shoved into his hand and before he could register who had given it to him they were gone. He looked back down at the note.

'_Theodore--_

_Found something of yours. Had a feeling you'd want it._

_--Blaise'_

Inside the note, there was a wizarding picture of a sun rising over the Forbidden Forest. Theodore stared at the date.

Blaise had given him his sunrise back. Theodore grinned for the first time in a week.

Since that day, Apollo is Theodore's second favourite thing in the world to watch. What Theodore likes the most about his new favourite is that he really does watch Theodoreback.


End file.
